"Ja" or "Nej" (Part 2)

How important is today’s vote for you?

Marie: It is very important in the aspect of democracy. Denmark is a democratic country and I find it important to feel that we have a voice with which we are allowed to voice our opinion. The yes or no decision itself is a difficult one so it is very important that we are asked.
Janne: The vote is not very important for me personally.
Charlotte: For me the vote is not really important because I can’t see the consequences. It is a very complex topic and maybe in the future it will turn out to be important but right now I do not think it is important for me personally.

Do you think that most Danes will either vote yes or no?

M: I personally think that it is going to be a no. No one can foresee the future but I think a lot of Danes are scared of what will happen if it is a yes. The consequences of a yes are far less predictable than the consequences of a no.
J: I think the Danes are too scared to vote no. The campaigns have focused on scaring people into voting yes.
C: I’m not sure. The public opinion says that it is a close runner and they also say that "no“ is a little further ahead.

How much of an impact would a no have on the collaboration between Denmak and the EU?

M: We don't know the consequences that voting no would have but I think we’d collaborate with the EU anyway. I hope the consequences are not going to be bad but really I don't know.
J: I think that we would not notice it at first but that the other countries would start seeing us as being not part of the EU anymore.
C: I think the topic is so complex. I don't think people really understand the consequences of saying yes or no and the Danes just don't know what to vote on. I will vote yes because if we want to cooperate with Europe I think we have to sit at the table at all times. Right now we are leaving the table at certain points because we are not part of that deal, which is weakening our decision. If there are on the other hand only bits we want to join, we should maybe start thinking about whether we should leave the EU instead of only participating in certain deals.

What do you think would change if most Danes voted yes?

M: I think voting yes meant that we’d have to collaborate a lot more with countries we don't necessarily have the same values as. It is in fact not just the police collaborating but also for example jurisdiction on whether or not a father should have the right of custody after a divorce. In Denmark we are more prone to giving the father the right in a custody battle, whereas I think in other European countries, such as Italy, this is different. So there would probably be lots of conflicts due to our values and on how we normally do politics. If there was a yes the Danes would maybe have to live by the Italian rules if for example a Dane’s custody case came to Italy. That might be a help on the long run but I’m not sure if thats good or not.
J: Many important things would be decided on in the EU instead of here in Denmark and I think that by that more things would be legal than they are now. If you take the agriculture for example there would be decisions on which chemicals are allowed to be used and that'd be a bad thing.
C: I don’t think we know what would change apart from the fact that there are deals where we would not have to leave the table. If Denmark voted no there'd be certain things in which the Danes would have to leave the table because they would not be part of that deal and that way we’d have no influence. If we will vote yes we are still at the table and can actually have our saying, whereas we don't have any sayings in these topics now.

What do you think of the yes and no campaigns of the Danish parties?

M: I don’t think they have been very informative but rather scaring the people. There is one poster that says something like "If you are against pedophiles you have to vote yes.“. That is like saying: "If you vote no you think pedophiles are ok.“. I personally think that’s just stupid. There is an other poster with a blond woman in a uniforme and the Danish flag behind her, of which I think it looks like a Hitler propaganda poster. I think with this image the Venste is trying to get the usual Dansk Folkeparti voters who are quite nationalistic to vote yes.
J: I think the parties are too busy making scare-campaigns instead of telling us what is really going on. They choose one subject instead of telling us everything.
C: I have not really looked at the posters because there have been so few. But I heard about them and I don't think they give a picture of what it really is that we'll be voting on. It is not "police or no police“. It is not "Europol or no Europol“. The political parties have made them too simple.